› added 11 months ago

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TIL the "Tommy Gun" was the 1st weapon labelled a "submachine gun." It originally sold for $200 in 1921 and has since become a collector's item. Today a gun can fetch between $25K-$45K with a model believed to be owned by Bonnie & Clyde selling for $130K.

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9YjoB TIL about The Battle of the Frogs. The loud croaking of thousands of fighting bullfrogs was heard in a pond in Windham, CT, USA. The sound caused citizens to panic and assume that Windham was under attack, some of them mistaking the croaks for shouted words, the beating of drums, or Armageddon.
wLZM7 TIL that during World War 1, the Germans disguised one of their ships as a British ship, the RMS Carmania, and sent it out to ambush British vessels. In a hilariously bad stroke of luck, the first ship it encountered was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sank them.
rRD6e TIL that the discovery of radium ignited a health fad in the early 1900s that saw it being used as a medical cure-all, in lipsticks, chocolates, toothpaste, water, health spas, treatment of impotence and chicken-feed!
NaeN TIL that during the Battle of Britain, German ace Adolf Galland was asked what his pilots needed to defeat the British. He replied “I should like an outfit of Spitfires for my squadron”; Galland had found that the British fighter was much more maneuverable than his own Bf 109 aircraft.
0dRbj TIL that, on average, half of all service dogs fail their training. Due to this poor rate, South Korea experimented with cloning service dogs that had already passed their training. The resulting clones passed at rates much higher than average.